American Sector, the John Besh restaurant within the National World War II Museum, has lured tourists, museum visitors and locals alike through its doors for its fun blend of 1940s kitsch and high-concept cooking. But by and large, the dining room has been filled with folks who come for the museum and stay to eat, not the other way around.

MICHAEL DeMOCKER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE Chef de cuisine
Todd Pulsinelli at the American Sector restaurant in the World War II.

Now the restaurant is trying to change that with the introduction of a new dinner menu. Previously, lunch and dinner had the same selections.

The evening options now include more entrees that play on the museum’s World War II time period, but with unexpected twists. A humble plate of spaghetti and meatballs is transformed with alligator meat and house-cured Mangalitsa lardo into something much more sophisticated than the mid-century food of memory.

The duck “fried rice” starts with duck confit and is finished with a slow-poached duck egg from a hatchery run by one of the restaurant’s servers.

Lunchtime favorites, including many of the appetizers and soups as well as the Sloppy Joes, carry over to the after-5 options, but the new additions — such as the flounder in hollandaise crawfish butter — aim to make the restaurant pop up more frequently on the radar of those who aren’t spending the afternoon exploring the bombers and battles of World War II.

“Some people have the wrong perception that we close with the museum,” said chef de cuisine Todd Pulsinelli, who created the new menu. “With dinner, we wanted to up the ante a little bit.”